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Stem Cells

The correlation between cotransplantation of mesenchymal stem cells and higher recurrence rate in hematologic malignancy patients: outcome of a pilot clinical study

Leukemia volume 22, pages 593–599 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

In this open-label randomized clinical trial, HLA-identical sibling-matched hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) were transplanted (non-MSCs group, n=15) or cotransplanted with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) (MSCs group, n=10) in hematologic malignancy patients. The median number of MSCs infused was 3.4 × 105 kg−1 (range, 0.3–15.3 × 105 kg−1). MSCs infusions were well tolerated. The median time to neutrophil engraftment (absolute neutrophil count >0.5 × 109 l−1) was 16 days for MSCs group and 15 days for non-MSCs group. The median time to platelet engraftment (platelet count >50 × 109 l−1) was 30 and 27 days, respectively. Grades II–IV acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) was observed respectively, in one (11.1%) and eight (53.3%) evaluable patients. Chronic GVHD was found in one (14.3%) and four (28.6%) evaluable patients. The number of patients who relapsed were six (60.0%) and three (20.0%), and the 3-year disease-free survivals were 30.0 and 66.7%, respectively. Thus cotransplantation of MSCs and HSCs may prevent GVHD, but the relapse rate is obviously higher than the control group. We conclude that use of MSCs must be handled with extreme caution before a large-scale clinical trial is performed.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Dr Lianming Liao, for reading, commenting and correcting the manuscript. We also thank Professor Liangping Hu for help on statistical analysis. This work was supported by the National 863 Program, Ministry of Science and Technology, People's Republic of China (No: 2001AA217131).

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  1. Department of Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation, Affiliated Hospital to Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China

    H Ning, F Yang, M Jiang, L Hu, K Feng, J Zhang, Z Yu, B Li, C Xu, Y Li, J Wang, J Hu, X Lou & H Chen

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Correspondence to H Chen.

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Ning, H., Yang, F., Jiang, M. et al. The correlation between cotransplantation of mesenchymal stem cells and higher recurrence rate in hematologic malignancy patients: outcome of a pilot clinical study. Leukemia 22, 593–599 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2405090

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